Sunday, February 12, 2012

What Is the Difference between Linux and UNIX

UNIX belongs to the earliest computing thoughts, the traces of the development are found as early as 1969. Linux, originating from UNIX was developed much later, in about 1991 to enhance computing by creating a free software alternative to commercial UNIX environment. The commercialization of UNIX, thus paved way for Linux. Today, both of them are the most comprehensive operating systems, and share a common platform, which is basically the UNIX system. Bothe these platforms continue to develop and thus have produced several new tools and applications, individually to meet several different computing environments.

Understanding the difference between Linux and UNIX is essential the perceiving of the process – the transition from a Linux OS to the former UNIX system. Yes, the transition from Linux to UNIX has begun again, and system administrators across the globe are finding the increasingly relevance to operate a website controlled by the UNIX OS.

Several differences lie between the two systems like: differences in hardware architecture, and the kernel. But, the main difference between the two operating systems lies in the aspect of file sharing. The high compatibility of Linux with other operating systems allows it to utilize different file sharing protocols. On the contrary, the commercial version of UNIX supports at the most only three different local file system protocols.

However, since the effort against commercialization of UNIX gave rise to Linux, the same cycle of de-commercialization of UNIX continues, even today. Who knows UNIX may win over its counterpart in the coming years ahead.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Benefits of Virtual Private Server

Virtual private server (VPS) is a product of latest technology. VPS is considered as the best cost-effective choice in dedicated hosting. Unlike shared web hosting, VPS offers the dedicated technology with absolute power to webmasters which makes it quite appropriate for average to large websites.

There are so many benefits of a Virtual Private Server. It is a virtual mechanism which has its own self-sufficient operating system. You can log-off, turn-off, or re-start the machine without disturbing any other system hosted on same server. It is also a readily upgradable machine. You can upgrade the CPU, bandwidth, memory limits, RAM, speed and disk space at very low expenses.

VPS also offers complete root access to the users. You can use various operating systems as per your preference. In the same way, you can squeeze the server to increase server performance, install business software and add scripts to run your websites smoothly.

Undoubtedly VPS has an enhanced performance than shared website hosting. In shared web hosting your resources are shared with other websites that are being hosted on the same server, but this is not the case with Virtual Private Server. You will get the complete root control along with dedicated CPU, memory, disk space and bandwidth.

Another advantage of this system is its security. VPS offers a protected interface with an ability to install the latest firewalls. It eliminates the big threat of system damage which can be triggered due to neighbored weak coded websites with security loopholes in a shared server. VPS eliminates this risk allowing you to safely test your codes, scripts and configure your system as per your preference.

As a result of the benefits of the VPS server, there is a huge demand in the online market. It is almost like dedicated server hosting excluding the overpriced charges, less performance, more risk, and low control and flexibility.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Difference between Hosting and Domain

The terms hosting and domain are often used together so it becomes a little difficult to understand as to what exactly is the difference between the two. Say you have designed a website and you want that to be visible all over the internet. What exactly are the steps needed to do that? To host any website what you need is a static IP address. The IP address of the system on which a website has been developed is usually a dynamic IP which can not be individually recognized. So what you do is, you contact a web hosting company and tell them the name of your website.

These companies have a collection of static IP addresses. The domain of a website is generally of the form www.xyz.com. WWW corresponds to World Wide Web which is the collection of hypertext materials available over the internet. The ‘xyz’ part depends upon the name that you have chosen for your website. The .com emphasizes whether your website is a commercial, business or an educational site. Thus the URL which is typed to access a website is just a small part of the big picture. This entire thing is what makes up a domain. When everything is set the web hosting company maps the domain name of your website to a static IP address. Thus typing URL of your website would be equivalent to typing that IP address preceded by ‘http://’. Hence the web hosting company has done its task.

Once the name of your website has been mapped with an IP address and the internet users are able to access your website by typing the domain name in the address bar of their browsers, you can say that your website has been hosted. Thus hosting and domain are two related terminologies involved while browsing a website.